The Spartan Pulse Robotics Club has consecutively advanced to state for the past three years. This accomplishment amounts to the strenuous effort each member has made to achieve their intended goal as a team. Their time and dedication put forth into each element of their project have immensely reaped benefits that demonstrate their competence in the utmost admirable manner. 

This year, the club had to assemble their booth based on the theme “Incision Decision,” regarding surgery robots. There are layers to the overall presentation of the final product, as the students have to conduct their research based on a limited amount of information given and eventually integrate creative components to manufacture a desirable outcome: the Spartan Pulse.

Autumn Dowdy, one of the sponsors for the club, mentions the variations of tasks that need to be completed to transition an idea into an outcome.

“What the students had to focus on was learning about how robots work without the surgeon being able to see where they’re at and instead using the robots to do that. Each student has a different specialty; for example, someone might be a marketing specialist, a safety specialist, or work on compliance innovation, and they will give their presentation.”

After competing against a range of hierarchies of schools, The Spartan Pulse was scored on a scale of one hundred regarding the engineering notebook (60–70 pages), the appearance, mechanism of the product, marketing of the company, the 8×8 exhibit, and sportsmanship. The duration of the event not only extracts a great deal of determination from the students but also expectations of excellent performance to advertise their game/robot.

“The judges won’t be able to keep anything, so the students have to talk or write at the moment without leaving with anything. The students have to talk about their company and the process of creating the product, but they also have to show their outreach, their sponsors, and the methods they used to spark interest in robotics in other people,” says Mrs. Dowdy. 

However, this is just a glimpse of what eight time-consuming weeks looked like for the members. In accordance with the theme, the students painted an anatomical structure of the heart with projection mapping (including the mission statement and company name), printed different parts of the robot (X-rays), used sponsors as IV bags, and crafted the structure and mechanism of the robot. Their game consisted of a sim bot with a head and shoulders, which the robot had to enter through to make its way to the heart and perform its tasks. This concept alone portrays the resilience and diligence, not to mention the talent that is a considerable aspect in regards to assembling the booth. 

“With the crunch time that we had, we used a bare conductive pipe and copper tape, which triggered the code through a copper wire, setting it off. But it was really hard due to the fragility of the wire, making it difficult to maintain stability and resulting in disruptions. This process took a lot of time, which could have been utilized for other tasks,” says Ashley Hernandez, a member of the Robotics Club. 

Regarding the factor for their inspiration, the members of Robotics visited the health museum, where they observed the mechanism of a beating heart and assimilated that concept into their project, but with LED lights to provide a hyper-realistic concept.

“We also used ideas from brain games and incorporated that into our actual game, which is why we chose operation,” says Ashley.

The students’ efficacy in maintaining time and creativity, along with the sacrifice of their time, demonstrates the capabilities of each member of the club. After advancing to state yet again this year, the Robotics Club represents Spartan excellence in every aspect, considering their ability to manipulate their intelligence and talent to generate high standards for other competitors.